Following the news that Gucci’s parent company Kering it set to create millions of medical face masks in France, it has now been announced that the Italian luxury house will donate €2 million to help fight coronavirus. 

With €1 million going towards the Italian Civil Protection Department (Protezione Civile) in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo and another €1 million donated to the United Nations’ COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, in support of the World Health Organization (WHO), the total sum of the money will then be matched by Facebook, as part of its matching initiative.

Calling on its community to help fundraise in this time of uncertainty, the label will also be working with the World Health Organisation in a scheme that will see the institution take over the brand’s Instagram and other social channels today (March 27). With over over 70 million followers across them, WHO will promote messages amplifying official public service information to protect the health, safety, and well-being of the global community.

“This pandemic calls us to an unexpected task, but it is a call to which we respond decisively, advocating the selfless work carried out by health workers, doctors and nurses on the front lines every day in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Gucci’s Alessandro Michele wrote in a letter co-signed by the brand’s President and CEO, Marco Bizzarri. “By supporting each other and helping those who are most vulnerable among us, we will be able to overcome this crisis.”

Revisit the AW20 Gucci menswear show above.